A New Era- Part Two
by Saint
Summary: Now that you know how we got here... Scott sends his first team on a mission and Iceman and Storm get a taste of what is to come.


Alright ya'll... Part One got your whistles wetted for the rest of this story. Expect lots of action now that I've got the background for the story flowing. Things are going to get interesting real fast.  
  
Oh yeah, disclaimer and all that: The X-men and all affiliated characters are owned by Marvel Entertainment. None o' this is mine, bub.  
  
  
Part Two:  
  
(Scott)  
  
The flight back from Alaska brought on some mixed feelings. I was tired. I had been in the mountains for three days and I was dirty and exhausted. So I was glad to get a chance to sit down in a nice leather chair and relax. But then I realized that things were still going to be different and the leather chair I would be sitting in would be a new chair. It would be a chair of responsibility like I had never had. I couldn't use the Professor's office but I would hold his office, if that makes sense. I had to sit become like Charles in new ways. I was not looking forward to my new role.   
  
  
(Iceman/Bobby)  
  
Wolverine had beaten me three times in this freakin' exercise. The danger room was pumping out combat-bots for us to fight and he was taking them out almost twice as fast as I was. The last score had been 30 to 17 at the end of the three minutes.   
  
"What's the matter bub?" he asked in his friendly snarl of a voice. "Can't hang with the old canuckle-head?"   
  
His chuckle really got to me sometimes. He was a damn good fighter, that was for sure, but his laugh almost made you angry to hear it. It was more like a growling animal that was humored by how small his prey was. Suddenly the bots came flying again and I was caught off-guard.   
  
Logan's laugh turned into a growl as he tore into each new bot and sent pieces of metal flying to the corners of the high-tech training facility we X-men use deep below the surface of the school. He was damn good.  
  
Not that I was something terrible in this simulation. After I whacked the first bot that had caught me off guard I turned and faced three of them at once. It's hard to describe how your muscles tense up once you're a living piece of ice, but it's truly rush. I dashed into the middle of the three bots and started fighting. An ice sword to the head of one, a frozen trunk to the body of another and more and more came.   
  
Now, I'm not the most focused X-man in the place when it comes to training exercises but when I'm in a combat simulation, I can usually pay attention, and even manage to crack a couple jokes along the way to make sure the can-o-whoop-ass isn't to dull, but when I turned to take care of the next bot, and saw a glimmer of ruby upstairs in the control room, I forgot where I was. It was Scott. He was back.   
  
I was reminded very quickly of where I was when I felt an iron fist slam into my back and send me sprawling onto the floor. By the time I rolled over I had six bots standing over me and the exercise was done. I had lost, again.   
  
"Bobby, what the hell are you doin?" Logan growled at me. "Pay attention damn-it."  
  
I informed him that I was done and got up to clean myself off. I looked back up and Scott was still there, standing still and watching. Even though I couldn't see his eyes behind the ruby-red glasses here wore, I knew there was something different about the way he was looking at us train. He was still "Mr. confident-leader-type-guy" but something in how he watched was different. It was almost like the professor used to watch.   
  
Then I got creeped out. It was just my imagination. I was still shaken up about the Professor's death a week ago and I just needed to take a break. Maybe though, maybe Scott was looking at us different.   
  
"It's just weird without the Professor." I reassured myself again. "I'll get used to it, I hope."  
  
(Scott)  
  
I felt like I was using new eyes to look at everyone with, even though I knew that I still had my laser-powered ones sitting in my skull. It was just that I was in a new position of leadership. I wasn't just calling the shots on the battlefield; I was really calling the shots. I need to know people like the professor knew people. If I make a mistake, the kind of mistakes that the Professor never made, then someone could die. It was so new to me to sit in this role.  
  
I had been watching Bobby and Logan train together in the Danger Room. Logan was doing his thing and looking good as usual and Bobby seemed to be getting along just fine as well. But then suddenly Bobby looked distracted. It was like a gorgeous woman had just walked by completely naked. He just stopped fighting, and got hammered. A bot came from behind him and pummeled him in the back. Suddenly a whole group of bots surrounded him and I stopped the simulation.   
  
As the holographic bots faded away I watched Bobby get up. It was weird. The whole time his eyes were trained on me in the booth. It was like I was in a zoo.   
  
"Ok Bobby, call it a day." I spoke into the microphone that lets me communicate with the team members in the room. "You look kinda out of it."  
  
He called back up to me sounding a little bewildered. "Yeah, thanks Scott."   
  
He walked out of the Danger Room and into the dressing room without another word. It was unlike Bobby not to run his mouth the entire time he was awake but I wrote it off as tiredness. He just needed some rest.  
  
Logan continued to train and soon Remy, known to us as Gambit, and Bishop joined in. I thought that was an odd group of fellows to be training together but again, I paid it no mind and just sat and watched. I took mental notes of flaws in their moves, flaws in their communication with each other, and each ones strengths a weaknesses. I almost felt like I had never done it before, even though it was about the hundredth time at least I had done it with each of these guys. Again, I think it was just the new eyes thing. I still can't get used to all this.  
  
(Jean)  
  
I couldn't believe I was walking into the cerebro chamber for the first time without Charles. I didn't even have him guiding me telepathically from a nearby place. This machine was my responsibility now. I was beginning to understand what I felt in Scott. This new role made me uncomfortable.   
  
"Here's goes nothing," I thought in both apprehension and fear. "Let's see what cerebro has for me today."   
  
I put the helmet on and immediately my mind began race out over the distances and I saw mutants and regular people and everything happening. I had done it before, but never without guidance. This was almost wonderful.   
  
I decided to limit myself and begin to search about in our general area so as not to stretch myself to terribly in the first time out. I just wanted to see how well I could see into the area. I wanted to know if I could find mutants without the Professors help.  
  
"Cerebro unit limiting search parameters" the machine said quietly to me. Then I began to reach out and surprisingly I found quite a few mutants. I reached out, touched their minds, found out about them and moved on. I was just sort of "surfing" cerebro if you'll forgive the term.  
  
I practiced a little more and then suddenly one of the minds was like a scream in my own. It was violence. It was anger. A group of young mutants was robbing a bank; just a rag tag group. A few had some enhanced strength; one had some limited telekinetic abilities. They weren't something to be fearful but I decided that I had better inform Scott and let him send a small team to clean this up and stop someone from getting hurt, human or mutant.  
  
(Bobby)  
  
I was just getting out of shower when my com beeped and I found Scott on other end.  
  
"Get dressed Bobby. You and Storm are going to go clean up a mess a couple of young bloods are causing at Greater National Bank."   
  
So Storm and I dispatched and soon found ourselves in front of a medium sized bank that lay deadly silent. We made our way to the front and prepared to go in.  
  
"Iceman, remember what Scott said. These are children. Be careful with them and we'll let him decided what to do with them."   
  
"I know, I know Stormie" I said sarcastically. "I'll leave some pieces for One-eye to counsel and stuff" Storm didn't appreciate my humor but I smiled and moved on anyways. She's used to me by now.  
  
I took one step into the bank and realized that we definitely had some amateur mutants on our hands. Three large ugly thugs stood scattered across the main lobby of the bank. One short little mutant was over by the vault staring at the door.   
  
"Alright fellas," I said cheerfully. "The baby-sitter is here and you boys aren't playing very nice." Again, someone didn't appreciate my humor. They turned and ran to fight.  
  
"Hold them off while I unlock this!" Said the short one. He was obviously the telekinetic Jean talked about, trying to unlock the safe with his mind.   
  
Two of the thugs came my way and one headed towards Storm. I tried to decide how I was going to fight these boys without hurting them to bad when something new caught my attention. Over to the side another young man was standing but he didn't seem like a member of this gang.  
  
WHAM! One of these mutant thugs really nailed me the instant I was distracted.   
  
"Gotta stop doing that," I thought to myself as I got up and came towards the two boys that wanted a dance. "These ones now, that one later."  
  
The one that got to me first was truly an ugly fellow. Let's just say his mutation had left him a little distorted in the face. He came pretty quickly for a big boy. He swung with his left fist and I easily dodged it and landed an ice-covered fist into his side. When he rocked with the blow I let my guard down for a second only to catch the left fist to the face as he came back around with it.   
  
Now I was pissed. I was letting his inexperience make me a bad fighter. By now the second one had gotten there so I positioned myself in-between the two. Each swung with a fist so I ducked and used my feet to spin and sweep them both to the ground. As they landed with a thud, I gathered as much moister out of the air as I could and used an ice sheet to freeze them to the ground. They were done.  
  
I turned and found Storm's thug lying unconscious on the ground and her headed towards the short one with the telekinesis. I followed across the lobby, forgetting for the moment the odd fellow I had seen just before the fight and made sure Storm was backed up. Suddenly the boy turned and I heard a defining sound accompanied by a flash. Before I realized what was happening Storm hit the ground in her own blood and the boy brandished his sawed-off shotgun at me.   
  
I froze (pardon the pun) and looked right into the boy's eyes. He was terrified. I was too, but I was more concerned with Storm. She lay on the ground, still bleeding and not moving at all. He just kept pointing the gun at me.  
  
"They just don't..." he started to say "...they don't understand," he finished telepathically. So he had both mental abilities. His speech became erratic. He couldn't decide whether or not to speak audibly or mentally. "They...they...we're poor...I need the money...I deserve this...it's all her fault."   
  
His hands were shakin'. His fingered slipped on and off the trigger. Any moment he could wig-out on me and fire. I had to help Storm.   
  
"Sheesh, I'm thinking like he's talking."   
  
I calmed myself and began to talk. "Listen, buddy. I know this is rough on you but I know someone... I mean I know people that can help. I'm like you..."  
  
"NO!" he screamed at me. "You're not like me. You just want my goddam money. You're not going to get it!"   
  
He leveled the gun to fire at me and I dove to the side and fought back out of instinct. I let a couple sharp blades of ice fly from my hands as I fell. I heard him scream as I hit the ground and realized I hadn't been hit. His frightened aim was off.  
  
My aim, unfortunately, was not off. I had hit him square in the chest three solid times and one blade looked like it had pierced the heart. He lay there in his blood and began to cuss me out telepathically. Quickly his voice faded in my head and I knew he was dead where he was.   
  
I turned to Storm and reached down to her neck to check for a pulse but as I did, I knew it wouldn't be there. The shotgun had riddled her full of holes including some in her neck and face. From that close distance, she had been killed when the bullets ripped through her. I went numb and just sat there. She was dead.  
  
Suddenly I felt as though I was made of a pool of water and someone had dipped their hands into me and made ripples, like everything was changing. Things got blurry for a second and suddenly I was standing above the two thugs again and Storm was walking across the room. It was forty seconds before again somehow.   
  
Not knowing what had happened and not caring I screamed, "Storm! Look out!"   
  
She reacted to my scream and sent a gust of wind that knocked the short boy over and the gun from his hands before he got a chance to blow her to bits. She was saved, so was he.   
  
"How the heck..." I wondered out loud. Remembering the other young guy in the room I turned and found him nowhere. He had vanished. "Uh Storm..."  



End file.
